Chapter 6

More Smart Ideas for Prior to Your Call

Let’s look at a few other important points to follow prior to picking up the phone, and answer some common questions as well.

Is There a Best Time to Call?

Over the past 30-plus years, I’ve seen my share of sales studies that claim to show the average number of calls it takes to set an appointment, to close a sale, how long calls should be, and more. And most of them don’t mean squat to you or me.

Are you kidding me? Common sense tells you that the guy setting appointments for highly specialized enterprise-level engineering software that is purchased once every 5 to 10 years isn’t going to have the same results as the person prospecting to sell subscriptions to the local business journal. I want to scream in frustration when I see these types of “average number of calls to make a sale” and other general stats because there really is no average.

I’m regularly contacted by reps and managers who are seeking my estimate on a metric for some aspect of sales, usually so that they can justify something to their boss. I always tell them there is no way I could offer a number or opinion unless I knew almost everything about their business and situation. The process of sales is not an exact science; there are too many variables involved. What you do relates very little to the guy selling a totally different product or service, to a different market, in a different way. And even if your situations might be somewhat similar, you need to factor in the hugest variable of all: the person doing the selling.

While researching a number of topics for this book, I ran across an article (on www.SellingPower.com) citing a study by Dr. James Oldroyd at the Kellogg School of Management. By looking at the records of more than a million cold calls—made by thousands of salespeople from about 50 companies—he applied some statistical measurements to determine success and failure patterns.

Okay, that got my attention. Oldroyd found that:

• Thursday is the best day to contact a lead.
• Thursday was 20 percent better than the worst day, Friday. Other days were in the middle somewhere.
• Between 8 AM and 9 AM is the best time to call, with between 4 PM and 5 PM the next best choice. (The 8 AM to 9 AM time frame was 164 percent better than a 1 PM to 2 PM call.)

Interesting. What the article did not mention: What were these salespeople saying on their calls? If we took a group of reps trained in Smart Calling who are saying and doing the right things consistently—would they have more success on Friday than the other test group on Thursday? Would they have the same results by calling at different times of the day?

What bothers me is that there probably are sales reps who would read this study—like so many before it—and consequently call only during the stated best times, assuming that the other times are worthless or less productive—and using it as a reason to not call.

Here is my finding, based on over 30 years of unscientific experience attending the School of Real World Observation and Calling:

• If you are not calling, you are not uncovering opportunities. Brilliant, huh?

Now, of course, there are certain industry-specific times that might be better—and worse—for calling. Common sense would tell you not to call a restaurant at lunch time. And the only chance you might have of reaching a building contractor while he’s actually in the office is at 6 AM or sometime after dark. Even Dr. Oldroyd agrees: “It’s absolutely vital to measure and analyze your own sales data to see what’s working and what’s not.”

Ritualize Your Phone Time

You might have an interest in Smart Calling for a variety of reasons. Some people might be desperate to generate short-term cash and need to make things happen quickly just to keep the doors open. Maybe you are not in traditional sales, but you are job-hunting and looking for opportunities and interviews. New sales reps perhaps need to shake the bushes to open fresh accounts and build their book of business, with the goal of not needing to rely on prospecting as much in the future. Or the savvy sales pro realizes that prospecting is the key to continually beating his numbers and income goals each year.

Wherever you are, the best method I have seen for someone in prospecting mode is ritualizing your calling. That means making an appointment with yourself to call during set times to which you commit on a regular basis. For some, it must be every day between certain hours, no exceptions. For others, it can be one day a week. Though it will inevitably vary from one person to the next, the key is setting the time—and then doing it.

When I decided more than five years ago that I was going to get back into the shape, weight, and jeans size that I was during my days as a high school athlete, I knew I had to make changes and a commitment to rituals. I had always been in pretty good shape my adult life (with a couple of 20-pound exceptions that came and went); I worked out at home with all of the equipment, including the $14,000 machine you see in airline magazines. But to really get back into 18-year-old condition, I decided that I needed to get into a gym routine with both weights and cardio. And I did. I ritualized it. At least five days a week, sometimes six, I still make it to the gym—usually between 5:30 and 6 AM. I also manage to find the time to work out on the many days when I am on the road doing training. Sure, there are mornings when the bed feels a bit too good, or perhaps I’m a bit hung over and I feel like saying, “Screw it.” But we all know how easy it is to let that turn into Screw it! again the next day, and the next. . . .

The same rules should apply when you are calling: do it regularly, and do nothing else during that time. Don’t check e-mail. Don’t write proposals. If you can, do most of your pre-call planning in advance, although I know that may not always be possible. You’ll benefit by being completely in the zone, where your energy and momentum builds. Success breeds success. Action builds momentum, and it is motivating. Don’t break it with administrative tasks. Your commitment to success will dictate your own rituals, which in turn will produce your results.

When You Are on a Roll, Stay in the Zone

Want to know the absolute best time to place calls? When you are in your own personal success zone. That’s the magic time when you have a string of very successful calls, your attitude is at a peak, and—almost magically—everything falls in your favor.

One of the greatest baseball hitters ever, Ted Williams, said that when he was on a hitting streak (which was often) he could see the rotation of the seams on a baseball traveling more than 90 miles per hour. Hall of Famer George Brett said the ball looked as big as a beach ball coming in. You also probably have some way to describe that great feeling you have when you’re on a roll, and successes are coming for you at every turn. So when you’re on a personal hot streak—keep going! Don’t stop to dwell on the success too long. Take advantage of the groove that you’re in and keep plugging away. Try to beat your best results ever. Success has an uncanny way of piling up when you are in a zone.

End with a Positive

Before hitting the machines at the gym, I always shoot some baskets to warm up. I’ve continued a particular practice I had long ago in high school when I played basketball and later, when I coached my kids’ teams: Always be sure your last shot of the day goes in. It might sound like a little thing, but I find it lets me end on a positive note. Similarly, when I was an inside sales rep more than 30 years ago for AT&T Long Lines in corporate life, cranking out numerous calls daily, I had the same rule: End every day with a call that was a win. It was not necessarily a sale, but it was an accomplishment of an objective. Try it! It helps you end your day on a high note and begin the next day the same way.

Great Days to Call: When Others Aren’t or Won’t

Want to avoid the call clutter? Call when others won’t, or during what they claim to be a bad time: around holidays, summer vacations, and long weekends. Many people traditionally write off these times—either by taking official vacation days or by mentally taking off, even though they are physically present (by showing up at the office and goofing off). However, business is still taking place. Granted, some prospects may not be in. But how is that any different from calling when they are in and reaching voice mail?

But other buyers are working. And maybe their gatekeepers are out. Perhaps it’s more relaxed in their office, and they are more apt to pick up the phone during these times. Maybe they’re even in a better mood, since everyone isn’t banging their doors down, wanting something.

Be sure to call during the week between Christmas and January 1. There are buyers with money to spend before the end of the year. Maybe there’s money left in the budget, or perhaps they need to spend for tax purposes. If they’re presented with an intriguing offer during this time, they just might be more apt to make a buying decision. I personally buy more for business in late December than during any other month because I need to reduce my tax burden. So I load up on things I’ll need over the next year.

I’ve never really understood people’s tendency to avoid calling during this particular week. What do these people think? That when they get back to the office on January 2 and start hitting the phones, they’ll be the only ones with that idea? No! Everyone starts calling the first day back in the office. And that’s the very day that decision makers are swamped with their own work!

You might not be hitting it hard during these traditional downtimes because you’re assuming that you probably won’t reach many people. But here’s all that you know for sure during that time:

If you’re not placing calls, you have no chance of reaching these people and selling to them.

Over the years, I have collected many success stories of reps catching up with that otherwise hard-to-reach decision maker and starting a business relationship during this so-called dead week. Here’s one.

Other Unconventional Times to Call

After or before Hours

Who’s normally working late or coming in early? Owners, executives, people who control money. A rep selling computer printer supplies once told me about how he had called into the corporate franchise headquarters of Subway sandwich shops late in the evening, thinking he would get voice mails so that he could ferret through the system and glean some information. Instead, he found a guy who answered a ringing extension and entered into a conversation. The man was a VP in the IT department and put the rep in touch with the person who subsequently became a customer.

Weekends

I know most people won’t take the time and give up their weekend—or even a portion of it—to make phone calls. But some will—and they will reach buyers, C-levels, and owners who are in their office and whose screeners are not working. They are more relaxed during these times and can take more time to listen to you and, therefore, buy from you.

Bad Weather Days

Pay attention to the weather in areas that you call into. I know of reps who make it a point to call in areas that have just been hit with a blizzard during the winter.

In his sales book Can I Have 5 Minutes of Your Time? Hal Becker details the experience of a Xerox sales rep who set a record during a three-day snowstorm, while many of the businesses in his city were closed. Most of the gatekeepers stayed home during this time, but their bosses were in. Many of these were prospects he had tried to reach, unsuccessfully, in the past. This particular rep set a 3-day record for sales that lasted more than 25 years!

Best Times for Follow-up Calls

I’m going to jump ahead a bit here to a later stage in the prospecting cycle. After you have gathered some information from an assistant about the best time to reach the buyer—or have actually spoken with him yourself—set a specified field set aside in your computer (or another consistent spot in your notes) that indicates the best times to call for this particular client. If you call the same people on a routine basis, knowing when you have a better chance of reaching them can save you a lot of time—time that you can then allocate to making more Smart Calls and sales. People are creatures of habit, and you are far more likely to catch a given person at the same time each day. If you haven’t reached certain clients successfully yet, try calling a different time of day on each attempt you make. This will increase your chances of hitting them at the right time this way.

Warming Up a Smart Call

If you, a staff member, or a marketing person can warm up your calls by sending something in advance—something that can possibly acquaint them with you and perhaps create some interest—then by all means, do so! However, don’t get your hopes up that anyone will necessarily open or remember what you sent. (Ask high-level decision makers in your company how much unsolicited mail they get and what happens to it.) So why do it? If it is targeted and relevant, it can have a significant return on investment.

My friend and fellow sales trainer Bill Lee (www.BillLeeOnline.com) suggests a good idea: Put your prospect on your mailing list long before you make your first call. Of course, this requires some work and planning on your part, but again, if you are serious about this and make Smart Calling a systematic habit, then it will become a ritual for you. Bill suggests sending things that you feel the prospect might find useful (useful is the key term here; don’t send purely self-promotional propaganda), such as:

• News clippings
• Magazine articles
• Copies of web pages with interesting info
• Helpful hints pertaining to their business
• Your company’s newsletter (again, the more about them, the better)

And let me add to the list:

Books: Find general, current, popular business books. Include a brief note about how you thought the prospect might find this interesting and that you will be contacting him soon to discuss some ideas. Sound too expensive? Of course, you wouldn’t send these out by the thousands, but let’s say a book is $15. I bet you’d have a better chance of getting in to see a high-level prospect when you say to the executive assistant, “I’m the guy that sent the book.” When this prospect becomes a client, you’ll make that $15 many times over.

Audio CDs or video DVDs: Similar to a book; be sure it is something educational, topical, and of value that will pique interest and curiosity.

Greeting cards: A very persistent sales pro sent me personalized greeting cards every month for 16 months (that’s right—16!) while I continually evaded his phone calls. I finally agreed to take some time to listen to the automated system he was using for sending out the personalized cards.

The best time to send the items is after you have already done some social engineering. This allows you to tailor what you send to the prospect’s interests and then enlist her assistant in helping you get it to the buyer. And when you do call, you still want to follow all of the steps in the Smart Calling system. Do not—I plead with you—do not start out your call with “I sent you a letter, did you get it?” (We will cover the opening statement in Chapter 9.)

E-Mailing before a Call

E-mails before a Smart Call can warm up prospects, if structured well. I recently received an e-mail that did catch my attention. It started out: “Art, thought you might be interested in hearing about how another sales trainer like you was able to get new customers and maintain them at a high lifetime value. . . .”

Then he went on to share a success story, mentioned some of my services and how they were similar, and shared some testimonials. He said he would call me.

That message earned my time because it was personalized, not just in name, but in content. He did his homework. He also built credibility by using a testimonial with an example of someone like me. Very nice.

This can work also with a hard-copy letter. Again, the key is personalizing the e-mail and subject line using Smart information and not trying to sell in the document.

Multimedia Messages

There’s no question that every day video is becoming more prevalent in all types of messages. I’ve seen it used a variety of ways in e-mails by salespeople, and it can be effective in getting through to a buyer. The problem though, inhibiting its widespread use by sales pros has been the relative difficulty to quickly, easily, and inexpensively send multimedia messages as part of a salesperson’s daily routine. However, I recently started using a cool service that removes the obstacles and enables you to quickly create multimedia messages you send in an e-mail.

With PointAcross (www.BusinessbyPhone.com/point-across), from my computer in just a minute or two I can quickly record a message in my voice and create customized slides, along with an image of my prospect I grab from their LinkedIn profile—talk about personalization! I send that in an e-mail, and can monitor when it is viewed. As you can imagine, this is much more effective than a basic e-mail.

How about Sending Unusual Items Prior to the Call?

Donnie Deutsch—host of a show formerly on CNBC called The Big Idea—tells the story of when he was building his ad agency and he wanted the account of a regional car dealer. To get to the person who was in charge of awarding the contract, he shipped an assortment of individual car parts to the guy’s house every half-hour for a 12-hour period. Each part was accompanied with a different message, like “We’ll Give You Bright Ideas” (a headlight), “We’ll Protect Your Rear End” (fender), and “We’ll Steer You in the Right Direction” (steering wheel). In total, Deutsch sent 24 of these packages. He got the account.

There is no doubt that sending unconventional items to buyers can get their attention. I put these things into the gimmick category. Just like a trick play in football, they make for a sexy story, and they are fun when they work, but you are unlikely to build a career on them. Here are just some of items I have seen and heard about:

• Packages of coffee and a mug: “I’d like to have a cup of coffee with you to discuss some ideas about. . . .”
• Shoes, or blow-up feet. “I’m trying to get my foot in the door.”

Lumpy mail. Direct mail marketers know that a three-dimensional envelope gets opened before standard direct mail. You are limited only by your imagination. Oriental Trading Company (www.OrientalTrading.com) sells all kinds of fun things.

A sales rep with Troy XCD Inc., named Angie Medina said that to really differentiate herself, she sends a crumpled-up catalog or brochure in an envelope and attaches a note saying, “Don’t throw this away again!”

At a marketing seminar I once attended, one of the participants shared the method he has used to seize the attention of high-level decision makers. I thought that I had heard most of the gimmick-related techniques of sending odd objects to decision makers, but this one beat them all. This salesperson purchases cheap, $20 disposable cell phones (the kind you can get at Walmart). He then sends them to his highly targeted top-level decision makers, along with a note that says, “I Believe We Can Help You Increase Your Profits. I Will Call You At 3:00 pm On Thursday The 16Th. Please Listen For My Call.” Then he calls the cell number! He claims that it is so unusual that it works almost every time.

Again, if you are having a difficult time getting through to a buyer—someone you feel you must have as a customer—and have exhausted all of your other avenues, you have nothing to lose by trying an unconventional approach.

Get Direct Numbers

There’s no arguing that having a prospect’s direct number will get you through more often than having to navigate through an automated system or an assistant. Plus, it saves you time.

The question then is how to get direct numbers.

In Chapter 3, where we talked about sales intelligence resources, many of the premium services provide direct dial phone numbers—yet another reason to invest in them.

In Chapter 4, as part of your social engineering you can and should ask for direct numbers. As a quick tip, when asking for a direct number, do not be shy about it or come across like you are doing something diabolical. Very confidently say, “And what is her direct number?”

Wildcard Searches

You can use the Internet in creative ways to find direct numbers. In Google searches the “*” is known as a “wildcard” character, meaning that when you do not know the number, enter in the asterisk along with whatever information you do have about your prospect, and you might just get lucky.

For example, let’s say using LinkedIn you found a prospect you want to target. Simply copy and paste their LinkedIn name and title into Google, then the area code and wild cards, such as 480-***-****. Bingo, chances are you just got a direct line. And, your chances will even go up if you know the phone number prefix, which you can find from their site.

Sam Richter, author of Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling, also told me that once you have the direct line, you can enter that into another search along with the name, and chances are you will get the e-mail. Or, if you know the e-mail, that can help you get the direct number.

Let Their Voice Message System Tell You

My friend, Steve Richard, with the sales prospecting and training firm Vorsight, shared this tip with me, which we also published in my Telephone Prospecting and Selling Report newsletter:

The next time you hear that when you’re on someone’s voice mail, “Your call is being answered by Audix,” punch in **6. It will say “enter last name, followed by pound sign.” Put in their last name, and it will give you their name and extension. Now that you have that magic 10 digit direct dial number, once we dial that, we have a much high probability of having a live conversation with the senior executive.

Smart Calling Action Steps

What else will you commit to do as a result of this chapter?